karteria

[megatheorem]

OOC INFORMATION

Name: Laura
Are you over 18?: yes
Contact: jojoveller or pm
Other characters: n/a
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IC INFORMATION

Name: Palamedes Sextus
Canon: The Locked Tomb series
Age: approx. 22
Gender: male
Species: human
Appearance: Palamedes is incredibly tall and incredibly thin; he is not a physically robust person by any means and could easily be snapped in half if he were in a physical altercation or a strong breeze. He gets winded going down a lot of stairs. He's all angles and sharp corners and his face is described as a bunch of jawbones stuck together as a joke; nevertheless, he's got very pretty eyes and an apparently transformative smile, as seen here and here. Generally he's a bit scruffy and dusty, brown-haired and grey-eyed, and he also wears glasses.
Canon point: Nona the Ninth, before he fusions himself into a different person with his bestie

History: Here

Personality answers:

Your character must live with only one sense for a year. They are allowed to choose. What do they pick? Why? How do they cope?
Palamedes would choose touch. He has psychometry, so touch is already more advanced to him than other people—he can read energy signatures and the age of a thing, identities of people who've handled it, and associated emotions. Touch is the obvious, slightly cheating choice. He'd still take it. Smell and taste mean little to him. He trusts Camilla absolutely to be his eyes and ears; she's already as close to him as his own limbs for how long they've been together and worked together, so he'd be confident that she could competently and precisely make up the difference. Touch is the only sense that he really depends on but can't depend on Camilla for; as a necromancer he depends on his ability to interact physically with the body.

As for coping, he'd be fine. Camilla would be there and he wouldn't have too much trouble just poking at stuff. Without Camilla around, he would be at a loss. He'd manage, he's clever and resourceful and he can manipulate necromancy to compensate, but emotionally he wouldn't be as comfortable without her. If Camilla Hect were a sense he'd choose her, but touch is a good second choice.

What does your character think about physical appearances? Are they the sort to meticulously primp themselves, or could they not care less?
The Sixth House's signature color is grey and that feels too loud for Palamedes, which should say everything. As a Sixth necromancer he's "enamored with the body," although that refers to the literal body and not its clothing or other primping. Palamedes' fashion sense is whatever grey ponchos they hand out at the Sixth and he doesn't even care for his ponchos that well; he is constantly described as dusty and dragging his hems through more, heedless of what he's picking up. He bends his glasses the wrong way constantly without caring how they'll look on his face. Camilla organizes his socks. He isn't unwashed, but he's got a scruffiness to him.

As for other people: still doesn't really care! He truly is enamored of the body, and so his interest in other people's appearances is that it's their appearance. He spends six months riding side-saddle in Camilla's body, and he is infinitely more dedicated to taking care of her body than his own. Still not a primper, but neither is Cam.

Physical appearances fascinate and delight him, usually academically. He's very into bodies. The most he asks is regular bathing.

What would your character say is their best trait? What is truly their best trait?
To Palamedes, his best trait intellect. With his intellect he perfects his necromancy and studies, which enable him to help the people he loves. Without it he would've been unable to help Dulcinea extend her dwindling life; he invented medical instruments that contributed to keeping her—and others—alive despite the odds. Intellect afforded him position as Master Warden, a leadership position to help his family. Without intellect he wouldn't be possessed of necromantic skill; he wouldn't have been able to unpack the secret of Lyctorhood (and refuse it, for being killing a cavalier to fuel the immortality of a necromancer) or crack Grand Lysis, which will allow himself and Camilla to fuse their souls properly together.

His best trait is actually his endless wellspring of empathy, which is the reason behind everything he credits to his intellect. He loves deeply and applies his intellect/skill to help people because of his empathy. His empathy stops him from thinking that intellect could be used for cruelty until he sees the results. The empathy returns: he's ready anytime to rescue family or strangers. He gives himself away constantly to protect his loved ones, even when he's told no.

What would it take to truly upset your character, enough that they would act upon their feelings? Are they the sort to forgive?
Palamedes is tolerant and forgiving, depending on the wrongdoing. If it's directed at him, he can take it and won't rise to the bait beyond quips; at his friends and loved ones, though, it's on. He tolerates the insults to his upbringing and competency when the Sixth House is challenged to a duel, until too many of the other assembled Houses insult his cavalier. Then he insists Camilla destroy the Second House cavalier, lecturing everyone assembled on their foolishness for picking fights, wasting time and getting cavaliers hurt for stupid reasons. His temper flares but he can forgive, or at least be civil.

But that's an insult. When confronted with cruelty, or the potential/actual loss of his loved ones, Palamedes dips into despair. It doesn't consume him; in fact he rises to the occasion with startling calm. When Cytherea reveals she's murdered and impersonated Dulcinea, his longtime love, Palamedes calmly keeps her talking so as to necromantically degrade her body and then explode. When the Sixth House is on the run and Camilla is injured, he calmly takes charge—he is their leader—and directs without unpacking his own feelings. While he does get upset, he can compartmentalize.

Inventory: a pencil, a notebook, a tape recorder, a novelty coffee mug
Powers/Abilities: Palamedes is a necromancer, which does not mean he makes zombies, in this canon, mostly. A necromancer is fundamentally a wizard that makes use of life energy (thalergy) and death energy (thanergy) to do various flesh/bone/spirit magics. Palamedes is an incredibly powerful necromancer but not unlimited in scope/raw power, per canon; with that in mind, Palamedes' abilities are:

• Psychometry: using energy signatures, he can get flashes of the history of where an object has been and who has interacted with it, more like a 6th sense than a "sucked suddenly into a cutscene" in practice
• Wards: drawn with his blood and imbued with energy to ward off spirits/creatures
• Other kind of wards: this one is like an invisible wall that spends energy to produce and maintain; it makes him sweat blood out of every pore and get woozy
• Flesh magic: fundamentally healing, but also works the other way, e.g. his personal knowledge of how bodies work lets him effectively put them back together or take them apart; caveats: can't revive the dead
• Bone magic: not his specialty and so a low priority, but bone magic as he has been taught allows the user to "program" a skeleton to perform basic tasks like sweep a floor etc.
• Spirit magic: ability to talk to, summon, and speak with spirits, but sometimes spirits just don't want to play and won't come chat
• Sticky soul: honestly I don't imagine this will ever be un-nerfed because it's nutty, but since it's relevant to his canon point and half his traumas: he knows how to attach his soul to an object so that if his body dies, he can kick it as a revenant; genuinely just putting this one here to give it a nod. he's coming for you patho-gen, explain your methods!!

Samples: several here
Goals: To study sacrilegious soul splicing, for sure. To get real intimate with his squid soul. To learn to exist without the person he's been co-dependently existing with his whole life.
Soul Choice: Cephalopoda